Dear families,
This year we are having a massive push forward on supporting children to be fluent and confident readers. You will notice that every child has a quality individual reading book and I will be sending them home with a bag for them to carry their book in. Look out for it, it’s in their house colour and should be with you by the end of next week.
Read more…
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 Dear families,
I wanted to inform and remind families of the school routines that help us to be supportive and yet run the school efficiently at the same time.
Dinner Monies
All dinner money should be sent to school in a named envelope and handed in to the class teacher. Dinner money costs:
£1.75 a day
£8.75 a week
Milk Monies
Milk costs £11 per term. Please put this in a named envelope and hand it to the class teacher.
Top Ups
Nursery top ups cost £6 per session. This should put in a named envelope marked ‘top up’ and handed in to the Nursery staff.
Parent Support Advisor Drop Ins
If you need to see Kirstie Phillip for a query or some support you may ‘drop in’ to see her on a Monday from 3.30-4.30 or a Wednesday from 9.30-11.30. Should you have a more urgent need to speak to someone please ring the school office on 01226282549 and ask to make an urgent appointment. If Kirstie is not available either myself or Miss Barker will see you as soon as is possible.
Contacting the School Office
To support the efficient running of the school and wherever possible please try to avoid unnecessary calls to school. Please check the school website and or Facebook for newsletter and other important information. Also, unless there is a medical need, children should not be picked up early from school.
PLEASE NOTE: The School Office is closed to visitors between 12:15 and 1pm.
Thank you for your continued support,
Nic Thorpe
Executive Headteacher
 Dear Parents and Carers
We will be holding pupil consultation meetings on Monday 17th October 2016 for all children in Reception, KS1 and KS2.
*Nursery appointments will be arranged separately for Tuesday 18th October with Miss Ollivant. Watch out for a separate letter.*
In these meetings we will share with you how well your child/children’s learning, in the new curriculum, is doing. It is very important that you understand how your child is progressing so that you can support them and us with anything that needs to improve. We also want you to feel really proud of their behaviour and the friendships they have
It is very important that you are able to attend to meet with your child/children’s teacher so that we can become a strong partnership to secure a happy and successful future for all the children in our care. If you are unable to attend on the day specified, please ring the school office to make an appointment for you on another suitable occasion. Failing that, please see the teacher concerned to arrange with them.
On the Monday 17th October 2016 the school library will be open for you to choose a book with your child.
Please click on the image or the link below, print out the letter then you can fill in the appointment request on page 2 and return it to your child’s class teacher as soon as possible.
Many thanks for your continued support!
Nichola Thorpe- Executive Headteacher
Donna Barker-Head of School
Autumn term PPT meetings 2016
What a busy week we have had in Year One. During Maths we have been extending our number knowledge by looking at number bonds up to 10. We used counters to separate numbers and recorded addition calculations to show the different ways of making numbers. We have focused a lot this week on forming numbers correctly. During PE we continued to explore movement to music using ribbons. We experimented in making different shapes and sizes in our movements including wide and tall as well as making ourselves small while learning how to travel.
Friday saw our huge Roald Dahl celebration. We enjoyed dressing as different characters from Roald Dahl’s amazing stories. We focused our art work on George and learnt how to use watercolours, pastels and oil pastels. Finally, we completed our final piece of writing based on George’s Marvellous Medicine.
In art we used red, yellow and blue to mix brown and green. During our continuous provision we used these skills and experimented further to see what other colours we could
make.
This week in Nursery we have enjoyed lots of Crocodile themed activities. We worked together to make a large crocodile in the construction and made individual croc biscuits to take home. Friday was lots of fun and we all looked smart, sharing our Roald Dahl fancy dress ideas.
In Y3, we have been finding out about life in Cameroon. This week, we looked at some of the mud hut designs that can be seen there. We worked in teams to make some structures for our own mud huts, using things that we found on the banking.
This week we have continued reading George’s Marvellous Medicine. On Monday we worked in pairs taking on the roles of George and Grandma and had some very bossy Grannies. This helped us to order the story events while building a bank of adjectives to describe various items. In Maths we have explored place value focusing on numbers 0-10. On Monday we worked in teams to order numbers and practised counting forwards and backwards. During the week we practised these skills with our shoulder partners and played an adapted version of hide and seek when finding missing numbers.
This week in Nursery we have had lots of fun exploring the different areas indoors and out. We used our listening skills in sharing a story and discussed our ideas and thoughts around the book. During welly Wednesday we searched for mini beasts using our explorers equipment. We found all sorts of insects, big and small. Outdoors in the provision we have mostly enjoyed making assault courses and challenging ourselves to conquer them!
This week in Reception we have followed the children’s interests and have gone totally bonkers for conkers. All week we have been investigating and observing the conkers. We were really excited to open the spiky green cases and discover what colour the conkers would be; some were white, some were brown. We placed the white conkers in the window and watched them gradually change colour to brown. To follow on from this; in our art lesson, we are going to be learning which colours we need to mix green and brown.
 This week Y4 have been growing in confidence as they practised and presented their speeches in the hope of becoming our new School Council Members. Myself and Mr Wood have been so pleased with how they tackled this challenge. They have shown maturity and independence in developing their own speech and practising to make sure it had an impact.
The children have concentrated on identifying nouns within texts then decided on what adjectives could be used to describe them. Once we moved away from the standard, generic adjectives, the children were able to use a lot more complex words, even venturing into copying Roald Dahl’s way of using alliteration!
Year 6 are currently enjoying an incredible book written by Roald Dahl – Danny Champion of the World. In case you didn’t know, the book is all about a father and son who poach pheasants from a very pretentious character named Victor Hazell. One of the methods that the duo use, is called The Sticky Hat. This week, the children have recreated this method themselves and have written a clear guide for poachers on how to catch pheasants successfully and humanely. This is them trying out the method in the KS2 yard.
 Families, please be aware that there have been some cases of Head lice in School recently. Please help us to avoid this by checking your children’s hair regularly and treating any cases.
There is a useful website here with advice and information on how to detect and treat Head Lice:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Head-lice/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
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14/09/16 School Library
Our library re-opens on Friday at 2.30pm. Please come to the main school entrance to join your child and choose from a great selection of books.
Mrs Thorpe
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09/09/16 You are Amazing!
A great big thank you to all our families for the outstanding attendance we have across school today. You are amazing!
Miss Barker
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30/06/16 Y6 Leavers Assembly
Dear parents and carers of Year 6. I look forward to seeing you in our leavers assembly tomorrow morning at 9am. Coffee and tea will be served from 8:45 so please feel free to join us from that time. Hankies at the ready! best wishes Mrs Thorpe
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28/06/16 School Performance
Tomorrow is our School Performance led by our wonderful year 6. The morning performance starts at 9:30am and afternoon at 1:30pm. Please arrive at Main Reception with your tickets promptly for these times. There will be a raffle and refreshments available so bring a little spending money if you wish!
We look forward to seeing you then and can’t wait for you to see your amazing children take to the stage.
Miss Barker
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21/06/16 Relationship Education
Dear Year 6 families,
To complete our learning about relationships we want to invite our children to bring into school their baby photographs so that we can have a ‘Beautiful Baby Competition’. We promise to look after them carefully.
Thanks so much for your support with this matter,
Mrs Thorpe
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09/06/16 Queen’s Birthday Celebration Lunch
Good Evening Families
Tomorrow all children in school will be having a Special Party Lunch to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday.
As Nursery children aren’t in school over lunch they are invited to wear Red, White and Blue for their own tea party during their am or pm session.
All children in main school Reception to Year 6 should come in school uniform as normal.
Thank you for your continued support
Miss Barker
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08/06/16 Sports Day
Good morning families,
Many, many, many thanks to you all for supporting our sports day today, the children look absolute spectacular in their house colours. I am especially impressed with how well the purple contingency have managed.
Gates on Bank End and Farm Road at Barnsley Academy will open at 12:45 and close at 1pm. There will be no admittance to the site from 1pm.
On the return to school all children will be escorted back to Bank End and released from their classrooms. Please do not ask to take them early, it is for their safeguarding that we insist on children not being separated from their houses.
I am so excited to share our sports day with you. See you there!
Mrs Thorpe
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07/06/16 Sports Day
Good afternoon families, I hope you are managing to stay cool in this muggy heat. The weather looks good for the Sports tomorrow afternoon but still please send your children with hats and sun cream on as we will be outside the whole afternoon. A letter is coming home again tonight for those of you who may have mislaid it before the holidays. Please read it carefully as entrance to Barnsley Academy will not be grated after 1pm. Mrs Thorpe
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23/05/16 Freebies!
We have a number of vouchers from Boots available for families. These are:
1. Free eye check digital storybook, free child’s eye check and a free eye check worth £10 for adults.
2. £2 off Boots Soltan Family Pack of Suncream.
If either voucher would be of use to you please feel free to collect from the School Main Reception.
Miss Barker
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25/04/16 School Shoes
Dear families,
Many thanks for sending your children to school ready for the Monday Mile. For the rest of the week children should be in black school shoes or trainers please as per our dress code. Quite a number of children have started appearing in baseball boots and brown/colourful shoes, please help your children to learn to stick to the rules by reminding them of the required foot ware. Many, many thanks for your continued support. Mrs Thorpe
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15/04/16 The Monday Mile!
Every Monday morning from next week the children in school will be working with Miss Barker to have a go at the Monday Weekly Mile in the school playground. After the enagement and enjoyment in the Sport Relief Mile last term, we are keen to keep up this type of activity. This is a healthy and fun experience for children that is proven to improve brain power ready for learning time. Please can you ensure that children are wearing flat shoes on Monday or have their trainers in school as part of their PE kit. Have a lovely weekend everyone and we will look forward to welcoming you back for a very energetic Monday!
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05/04/16 Boot Camp starts tomorrow
Dear Y6 Parents/Carers,
As you know, the SATs tests are fast approaching. The children are due to take the tests on the week starting 9th May 2016. In praparation for this, the children are working extrememely hard in class. In addition, the children are also working on a Boot Camp pack that they will bring home each week. This will be their homework.
To support the children further, the teachers are all working together to provide some additional support for the children in the form of Boot Camp sessions. These sessions will run after school, Monday – Thursday for the next 5 weeks and will begin tomorrow 6th April 2016. The sessions will begin straight after school and will end at 4:00pm. The children will be given a short break between 3:00-3:15 so that they are refreshed and ready to begin their boot camp session at 3:15 prompt. The children are allowed to bring a drink and a snack to have in their short break. Please can we ask that the children do not bring glass bottles, cans or energy drinks. If the children want to bring sweets to have in this break, they can do so.
Your child will need to attend three sessions per week and they have been given their own time table to follow. If they attend 12 sessions and complete their bootcamp pack by Friday 6th May they will earn the Year 6 class reward. The children are in discussion about what this reward will be. So far, the most popular ideas are a: a VIP showing at the cinema or ice skating. The reward will be on the final day of SATs week, which is the 13th May 2016 and school will be paying for the reward.
If your child needs to miss a Boot Camp session, for any reason, please inform the office so that we can reschedule their session for another time.
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31/03/16 School Holidays
Just a quick reminder, school is closed for training on Monday 4th April but re-opens as normal with breakfast club and all other after school clubs on Tuesday 5th April.
Mrs Thorpe
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31/03/16 Y6 ASSEMBLY TO PARENTS
Dear Parent/ Carer,
On Wednesday 6th April 2016 Year 6 and Miss Smith are inviting you to watch a special assembly about all the work that they have been doing leading up to their tests in May. We would love you to join us to watch their presentation in the hall at 9am. Following the short assembly there will be a short presentation about the SATs, where you will be able to ask any questions that you need to know to support your child through the very special period of time. I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you for your continued support,
Mrs Thorpe
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15/03/16 Head Lice
There will be a letter coming home shortly to update you on the current outbreak in Head Lice in school. Please make sure all children are checked this week and are treated appropriately if needed. All long hair should be tied up whilst children are at school. Thank you for your continued support.
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15/03/16 Family Craft Club
Family Craft Club is cancelled on Wednesday 16th March due to staff training for Mrs Ward & Mrs Johnstone. It will be back on as normal in the Summer Term. Children who normally attend can join other clubs for the day if they wish.
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14/03/16 Egg Drop Challenge
Science Week got off to a cracking start in assembly with Mr Cooper this morning. Watch out for letters coming home and to the school website later today about our Science Week ‘Egg Drop Challenge’. The children are very excited to get going with this.
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08/03/16 Parent workshops
Thank you to all of you who provided feedback around Parent Workshops through my recent questionnaire. The draw for the food hamper has been done and the winning parent or carer will be notified by text. We are currently using this feedback to plan the next set of workshops with staff in school and will be in touch with you shortly with our future workshop plans.
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04/03/16 SNOW update ~ Friday 4th March
Good Morning Families,
SCHOOL IS OPEN TODAY. Although the snow is still falling, the roads are fine for now. We will contact you all if there are any changes. Please make sure your children are wrapped up and are wearing suitable footwear.
See you all soon.
Mrs Johnstone.
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28/02/16 Parent Pupil Teacher Meetings
PPT Meetings will take place at Bank End on Monday 7th March. Please watch out for letters arriving home tomorrow. Slots will be allocated on Wednesday. If you are a working parent and need a later slot than is available please write that on your form and we will make sure we give you an appropriate slot at your convenience. Many thanks, Mrs Thorpe
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